“Yesterday was our first day of commercial harvest with the Chelan Variety,” says Roger Pepperl with Stemilt Growers. “We got through the past weekend of weather with no damage and right now have a much cleaner crop than last year.” Our peak days on the early cherry varieties will be May 28-June 3 shipping. We will have Sequoia, Corals, and Chelan’s as our major volume items. We will have a firm product, big sizes, clean fruit and dark color which will garner a strong consumer response.
Bing
Bing cherries will be starting up on or about June 1st. Industry volumes in the Bing variety are light this year due to pollination problems. “Our Bings will be a very large size with a 9.5R peak. We will be in the peak of Bings from June 5th until June 20th this season.”
Rainier
Rainier cherries will start the first few days of June and they will peak between June 13 and June 25. “We have an exciting new Rainier Cherry packing line this season which will size, sort and package Rainiers in a gentle and innovative way using the Unitec Optical sorting and sizing technology,” said Pepperl.
We are focused on developing Cherry festivals at retail this year which will feature, jumbo dark sweet cherries, Rainier Cherries, Organic Rainier and dark sweet cherries and our proprietary Skylar Rae cherry. These festivals will be aimed at late June and early July timing.
Contact:
Roger Pepperl
Marketing Director
Stemilt Growers
(509) 662-9667 x1212